To think that there's a lot of CF/ scammers on go fund me sites?

[salsmum]

I'm all for donating to worthy causes if I can afford it but do think that there are some CF on GFM pages and remember a particular one where a 'homeless' guy in USA helped a lady stranded in her car out of petrol and he gave her the money he had to get her home... it turned out that it was a scam in the end. I was wondering if you've seen any CF/scam GFM pages?

I am aware the scams abound.I don’t make any donations via GFM

Not so much a scam but I do hate the ones that arise out of a lack of personal responsibility. Every summer (pre COVID) there seemed to be an influx of “help bring Suzie/Bob/etc home” and the story would be some young backpacker who went to Thailand with no travel insurance and then went quad biking through a jungle with no helmet, had an accident, suffered serious injuries and can’t pay the hospital bill or get home. And all because travel insurance was”too expensive”.

I posted under chat. My small town lost 2 lads in the last month. One died on Christmas Day. One they had to turn his life support off.
Nearly £28000 was raised for their funerals via GFM. I donated to both. Yes I know their families.
For this I was proud that even in these difficult times people are generous. All donations were from local people.
But I think it's wrong to beg for money for a lifestyle or through their own stupidity.

I was once invited to donate to a GFM page for someone raising a deposit to rent a house!

A FB friend is trying to raise money on GFM to start a fashion brand. They're is not a single picture of any clothing/jewelry or whatever. Why would I donate to something I have no idea what it's like and why on earth aren't they trying to start a business with their own money or a bank loan??

@Noidea2114 I must be close to you. I don’t know the poor families personally but I too donated to both their GFM pages after reading about them in the local paper. Absolutely tragic.

But some I think are cheeky. There was one shared on Facebook for a couple from my city trying to raise money for IVF. They had had a child but wanted another so were asking for donations. I don’t know, something like that doesn’t sit right with me.

And another I saw was a woman who wanted to become a slimming world consultant but couldn’t afford the fees

2 I have seen recently are for a cremation for their cat (£800!!!!) no one donated and plenty of people said they knew places they could get it done for £60 (they didn't reply to that!), and one for a sex change op as their NHS wait is taking longer than expected (this must be harder but I still think it is a bit CF to post on very local town's Facebook page)

🤷‍♀️ If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

I personally won’t be starting a gofundme but if you feel like something would improve your quality of life, and you know that some people mug like to help you with that, why not ask?

The only one I can remember is a woman in my social circle who did one to raise funds to go to the rio Olympics as a volunteer. Dont think she raised anything like the amount she wanted. Pay for your own holiday luv.

I’ve stopped donating to GFM after a local dog groomer raised 14k for her rescue dog that needed a life saving operation.

3 years later the dog still hasn’t had the operation, but the dog groomer has had a new bathroom fitted, and extended the garage that she runs her business out of. She had kids donating their pocket money and all kinds, the cheeky fucker.

Pretty much all of the ones for pets needing surgeries. I even saw one by someone admitting they could pay for it, they just wanted to see if they could find enough mugs out there so they didnt have to basically. Pay for your own animals. I've taken out loans for my pets, do the same.

2 I have seen recently are for a cremation for their cat (£800!!!!) no one donated and plenty of people said they knew places they could get it done for £60

A basic cremation is £30 via my vets - that's a cremation en masse with no return of ashes. You pay more if you want some ashes from the mass cremation, and significantly more if you want an individual cremation for your pet.

Each to their own, but if you want an individual cremation for your pet you need to make financial provision for that - some insurance policies pay out on death, or you could save up for it.

Alternatively, if you can't bear the thought of a mass cremation, if you have a garden, you could bury your pet at no cost at all.

All mine have been cremated in mass cremations, but I set no store by such things at all. If it were an option I'd put myself down for an en masse cremation when I go, as I can't bear the waste of money that is the funeral industry.

Someone in my county (in a very deprived area, relevant) was raising money for their sick child to have a certain treatment abroad, as they said "the NHS doesn't provide this treatment". They raised about £300k! About £75k more than they needed. So many people they never even met were doing marathons etc for them. However I used to work for the NHS and I know they DO provide this procedure at Great Ormond Street, but a doctor won't refer if the procedure will be ineffective. So I didn't donate on the premise that it probably wouldn't work in another country either.

They raised the money and they flew out to the other country for the treatment - loads of social media pictures of the whole family (plus aunty and uncle, Gran's and grandads etc) in the first class cabin, in their 5 star luxury resort with suite, fancy meals out etc. They were out there for a month. I was a bit as I'm sure they did have their child's health in mind but to me it was SO crass to use the money to have such a fancy holiday. And then show off about it! Why couldn't they have donated it to a good cause instead?

He had the treatment - this was just pre-COVID, so maybe a year ago - and never heard a peep from them since. I don't think it's a scam but I do wish people would do a bit of research before blindly donating.

@somewhatbored that's really interesting. Yes, I agree make the provision before hand or go basic!

I agree and wouldn't donate either. Years ago before GFM there was always someone in my workplace trying to raise money to do some sort of expedition or other. Granted some of the money went to.charity but mostly it was about people trying to get you to pay towards a holiday/event of a lifetime for them.